Another Hike Post

I know that when I post about going on the hike it really isn’t any thing new but this afternoon when we went I took along the camera and just wanted to share some cute pics. Owen rides in the backpack for half and walks the rest. He was very interested in all the little flowers sprouting and every time he heard a plane we had to stop and find it through the trees. He was pretty good at spotting them. So happy the warm weather is coming back so we all can enjoy a little more sunshine and outdoors.

Happy to be Hiking

Running (Isn’t his new hat adorable)

Taking a Break to Pick Flowers

Carefully Picking (he looks so entranced)

My Baby Girl

The Three Amigos

Smiley Boy

A Nice Surprise

This morning Owen didn’t wake up until 8:30. I thank my son for a wonderful nights sleep. We had planned to go to this new place called At Play Cafe, but Owen was in a wonderful mood and was happily playing so I didn’t have the heart to disturb him. Most the morning he played alone by choice. This gave me lots of time to get all the little things that seem to add up finally done. The guys have started the patio also, and Owen (and of course the pups) was very interested in what they were doing. He really liked the wheel barrow, and would announce “wagon, dirt”. He kept going back to the door to check on them.

Watching the Workers

I always enjoy watching Owen be in his own little world. Most the morning he played with his cars and farm. He likes to lay on the floor and drive them through the barn door.

He also likes to hide in the bathroom, where I could actually hear him playing with his cars. He runs in there and then announces “Owen hiding” and drives his cars and when I ask where he is, he opens the door with a huge smile and then quickly closes it again.

Here I Am

Driving His Cars Out First

I also ended up cleaning and organizing the office (a room that seems to have mounds of paper in it). Owen stayed there with me and played with his cars and looked through the cards. He also found some stickers, and got to put the frog one on his hand, he currently still has it on while he is napping. There is a little card board star in there that he likes to pick up and requests “Twinkle, Twinkle”. After I finished singing it, he would say “again”, this went on for about 20 times. So to keep it fresh (for me mostly) I would sing it all different ways. He enjoyed the rap, laughing and oprah versions the best.

Being that Omer had to leave for work before Owen woke up, I thought we’d go to his work for lunch. When I told Owen where we were going he got excited and waited on the sofa for me to get his shoes on. He was happy to see his Daddy, but he was being very shy to Omer’s coworkers. Usually he chats it up and is a little show off but today he kept hiding in Daddy’s legs. When we went to go eat, he started to chat more and even warmed up to some extra lunch guests, John and Jodi.

Let’s Go See Daddy!

New Outside Fun

As I have mentioned we are in the middle of building a playground for Owen. We finished the slide part and when we laid it on the porch, we both knew that until it was up Owen was going to drive his cars and walk on it. Well we were right. This afternoon, we went outside and he immediately ran over to it and announced “slide” and then started to walk back and forth on it. Then grabbed his cars and drove them over the hills.

Taking a Walk on the Slide

This is Fun!

“Weeeeeeeee”

“Vrrrrmmmmm”

Over the Hill

Then we were off to explore the new growth in the yard. Owen really likes to collect flowers (weeds) and we have lots of sprouting purple, yellow and white flowers (weeds). Luckily he hasn’t shown interest in picking and destroying the couple daffodils we have. He runs to the flower areas and then points and names the color of flower he wants, then I pick it and hand it to him. His favorite is definitely purple. He was holding so many that he would extend just one finger from his fist to try to squeeze one more flower in.

The Flower Collector

I had to go inside to start making dinner and Owen had no interest in following me so when I went back to check on him he was standing in the garden of weeds. (Soon this will house beautiful flowers.)

He was enjoying just holding his current flowers and talking about the ones on the ground.

Stomping the Flowers

Enjoying Spring Flowers

Patience

As anyone who has had or has a toddler knows that they can become very inpatient. We have been teaching Owen about patience and trying to instill this wonderful trait in him. He can say patience and enjoys saying it so that helps a lot. (I would recommend teaching this word to your child.) When Owen is being very inpatient, I very calmly tell him he needs to have patience, then he will keep repeating “patience, patience” and calm down and wait. Of course this doesn’t work all the time; sometimes he will repeat the word several times and then the word becomes more and more of a whine. But heck most of the time it works long enough for me to get what he needs or wants.

Happy Birthday Grammy

This morning while Owen played with play-doh I thought I would surprise my mom with a little birthday message. Of course the first time I tried to get Owen to say it, was the best and no video camera in sight. Well after I found out he actually could say the phrase, the mission was on and I tried to get the best message possible. Doing this with a 20-month old proved to be difficult as he would catch sight of something else or just continue the phrase instead of repeating, but I think my mom will get a big smile.

A “Lazy” Weekend

We had big plans for the weekend, i.e. go to DC to see the Cherry Blossoms, but with the rain and dreary weather today we decided to stay home. Wish we would have been able to go on Saturday, beautiful day, but we did get to enjoy a lot of outside play time. It by no means was actually lazy, we got a lot of house stuff accomplished but we didn’t do anything really exciting.

It was one of those Sunday mornings where you just stay in your PJs and enjoy being at home. We all sat in Owen’s playroom and enjoyed some family playtime this morning.

One of the most common games now is chase. Owen loves to be chased and I am still home base unless I am the one chasing of course. Owen gets very excited and screams and giggles. He will run away from Omer and then run and plop into my lap.

Playing Chase

Then of course Owen was caught and went upside down, also one of Owen’s favorite things. He will actually request to be “upside down”.

Upside Down

Owen loves to sit in his bear chair and recently has found it quite funny to bounce. Amazingly he bounces pretty high in the air. This activity always gets lots of giggles.

Getting Ready to Bounce

Bounce-A-Bounce

Recline and Relax

We ended our family fun with Omer jumping up and down and Owen trying to jump. He doesn’t quite understand how to jump but loves to stomp and bend like he’s going to jump.

Jump, Daddy, Jump

Stomping

Daddy Helping Owen Jump

As you can see from the massive drool spot on Owen, it was time for all of us to get dressed. 🙂 We had a very nice day and even got some of the playground started (more of that will come later). I tried to give Omer a break throughout the day but Owen kept calling for him and just really had a desire to play with Daddy. I would come and try to play and essentially Owen would ignore me and look for Daddy. Ouch! 🙂 Honestly, I love how much fun they have together and that Owen truly looks forward to playing with Daddy.

I came downstairs to find Omer teaching Owen a new game, prepping him for street gambling. Never too early to receive these lessons. (HA HA) Owen would actually search for the blue car and got very excited once he found it and then quickly demand “again”.

Gambling 101

He Found It!

Mixed Post

When thinking about what to post today I came up with a couple thoughts about things that have happened in the past week, they started to add up and I didn’t want to have a bunch of different posts so I figured I would do a mixed post. Enjoy my random thoughts about Owen.

What Did You Have For Lunch?
Owen today kept requesting fruit after fruit. He had no interest in eating his sandwich, but he ended up eating a whole banana, a whole pear and several pieces of melon. I couldn’t believe how much fruit he packed in.

Anything Grilled
More food talk. I grill quite often and am amazed at how much Owen loves grilled meat. He likes it so much that when I am in the kitchen seasoning the meat he stands there requesting “chicken” and gets upset when I take it away to grill. The other night he ate half a chicken breast and last night he ate a bunch of steak. It’s cute because no matter what the meat is he calls it “chicken”.

New Bed Toys
Owen now must have a couple cars in his bed for nap and night. When I tell him it is time for nap, he goes over to his car bins and picks two and then runs to the stairs. At first I thought he would be too distracted with his cars in his bed to actually nap, but it hasn’t seem to affect him. He drives them along the edge of his crib and I flips his pillow to the side to act as a ramp. He rarely plays with his other crib toys anymore.

Who is Chris?
Owen is very chatty and has a lot of words, and now he has started saying short sentences. Sometimes I find myself not understanding some of the words he is saying now. I can understand the common words he says but some of the words around them I’m not clear on.  There is one word he says here and there that I have no clue what it is. It sounds like Chris. There isn’t one room he says it in, or one situation, or when he’s playing one certain toy. So I can’t quite pin point what it is. I try to ask him if he is trying to say “kiss” or “cars”, but he says these words quite clear and when I suggest them he looks at me and states “CHRIS”. Is it an imaginary friend? There’s no way, he’s way too young. I just can’t figure it out. This afternoon while I was getting him ready for his nap, he was laying on the changing pad and calling out “Chris” and then giggling. As soon as I figure it out I’ll let you all know, but for now Chris is a word only Owen knows.

Cleaning with a Toddler
It is interesting to clean the house with a toddler. Owen usually ignores me while I clean most things but when the broom comes out he gets interested. He follows me around while I sweep pointing and saying “dirt” and then he will get the dustpan and hold it while I sweep the pile up. I made the mistake of leaving the dustpan with some dirt in it and Owen picked it up and dumped it on the floor. He then sat down and picked up the dust and dirt and put it back in the dustpan. Too funny! After I am done with the broom he asks to play with it. This consists of him pushing it around the tile floor.

My Little Cleaner

Free Fun

This afternoon Owen and I headed over to our local pet store, Just Pets. I love this place because I know everyone who works there (I used to sell my dog treats to them) and it has a lot of cool set-ups for Owen to look at. He knows where we are going when I tell him and gets very excited. We walk in and he immediately goes back to the bird cage, calling “birds!!”. The bird cage is amazing, there are branches so you get to find all the birds and watch them fly all over the place.

Bird Watching

What is that? Looking over to where the macaws are. Owen likes to look at them but prefers the smaller birds.

The Macaws (sorry it’s blurry)

“Bunny”

There is also a coy fish pond. Owen leans over to try to get a closer look.

Once we got home from our errands, we gave Chloe and Chester their new toys. They are always excited to get new toys, Chloe likes to nibble and clean her toy and Chester likes to play chase.

We also ran to the grocery store, where Owen likes to name all the balloons hanging on each aisle. Today I let him get the shark. He spotted him all the way across the store and kept calling out “shark!”, I figured I’d spoil him this time. He was beside himself when I gave it to him. He makes the Jaws noise “nananana”, and enjoyed making the shark swim around and we also had to play chase with the shark.

Owen and the HUGE Shark Balloon

He even took the shark to play cars with him.

Tank You, Welcome

I try my best to teach Owen manners; he is pretty good about saying “Tank You” among other things. Sometimes he will just say “tank you” on his own and sometimes I have to tell him “say thank you” and he will. I always say “your welcome” once he says it, and I guess he now relates these two sayings together. Occasionally he will say “tank you, welcome”. I just have to giggle.

Super Nap Hair

Occasionally Owen will take a super nap, as I call them. Usually he naps about 2 hours but super nap days are more like 3 – 3.5 hour naps. Today I was blessed with one of these super naps. I was pleased that he picked today because I painted the bathroom while he was napping and finished the first coat and still had time to relax a little. Thanks Owen! I just finished with the second coat during today’s nap, very excited that I am all done.

When he wakes from these super naps his hair is usually a mess, today was a prime example of that.

Front View

Side Profile

Super Nap Hair